Marius’s most important job at the moment is to entertain Auraniess.
To be more precise, it’s to help her relieve stress.
“What should we do today?”
When Marius said that, Auraniess grumbled for a moment, then clapped her hands and shouted with a wide smile.
“I want to see Marius versus Sophia!”
The two who were pointed out glanced at each other, somewhat reluctantly.
“Do we have to fight?”
Marius asked.
“You don’t have to, but if you don’t, you’ll need to be appeased,”
Sophia replied.
Marius reluctantly agreed to fight Sophia.
The arena for their battle was resolved by Auraniess activating “Gae Bolg.”
“Just a curious question, how strong is Sophia? Being Auraniess’s favorite, she seems stronger than your average Demon Lord…”
“Who knows?”
Sophia’s reply was curt.
She had never really considered the extent of her own strength.
Not wanting to appear too aloof to someone important to Auraniess, Sophia looked back on her past and answered.
“For starters, I believe I’m stronger than Alastor, Vepar, and Zagan.”
These were all Demon Lords she could definitively say she was stronger than.
However, Marius couldn’t quite figure out how to assess the situation.
“I guess I’ll just have to try and find out.”
“That’s right. It’s just a test of strength, after all.”
While neither of them felt any pressure, the spectators were a different story.
Auraniess was excited, Iris felt sorry for Sophia, and Zofi, El, Al, Barra, and Catherine had all turned pale at Sophia’s remark about “Alastor and…”
“【Tonitulus】”
Marius used a first-class thunder spell as a surprise attack.
Thunder boomed, and countless bolts of lightning struck Sophia, but they passed right through her body.
“Huh?”
Marius stared in surprise, her body seemed to be turning into mist.
“Mist Form, I presume.”
“Indeed.”
Sophia made no attempt to hide it.
One of the things Vampires excelled at was transforming their bodies into other forms.
The skill “Mist Form” turned her into a mist, rendering all but fire and ice based attacks useless.
“【Exharatio】”
Marius targeted the mist-formed Sophia with a first-class fire spell.
As he wondered how she would escape, the attack once again passed through her.
Worse still, he lost sight of Sophia.
The moment he thought to use magic to search for her, a chill ran down his spine, and Marius instinctively
deployed “Dimension Shield.”
Immediately after, a black mass shot out from Marius’s shadow and clashed against the Dimension Shield.
It then shattered the Dimension Shield in an instant.
At the same time, Marius avoided the attack using “Warp.”
The black mass eventually took on a human form, becoming Sophia.
“It feels like it’s been quite a while since an attack was dodged like that.”
Sophia said with a cool expression, and Marius clicked his tongue.
“So you can use Shadow Form as well.”
“Yes.”
Sophia affirmed again, just as casually.
The skill “Shadow Form” is like a shadow version of Mist Form, allowing her to meld with surrounding shadows.
Shadow Form is a troublesome skill that can only be broken by light-based attacks.
What’s even more troublesome is her ability to switch between multiple forms depending on the situation.
“Then, I’ll come at you.”
Sophia kicked off the ground, closing the distance in an instant.
While Zofi and the others’ eyes widened, Marius, who had experience fighting Decarabia and Auraniess, didn’t find it particularly surprising.
He prepared by deploying “Dimension Shield” three times.
Then, something unexpected happened again.
Sophia’s body passed through the defensive barrier that was supposed to repel everything.
“Huh?”
As Marius stared in shock, she raised a white hand and unleashed her magical power.
“Diamond Dust.”
Cold wind and ice shards danced wildly.
However, Marius was no longer there.
The moment Sophia attacked, he had dodged using Warp.
“So you can use Phantom Form too,”
Marius stated, correctly guessing the reason his Dimension Shield had been ignored.
“Indeed. Your crisis evasion abilities are also exceptional.”
Sophia admitted casually, and then praised Marius’s evasive skills.
The skill “Phantom Form” allowed her to turn into a spirit, phasing through obstacles and enemy attacks.
Only light-based attacks could effectively damage her.
Meanwhile, Sophia was also marveling at Marius’s evasiveness.
“It’s not for nothing that you took no damage against Auraniess-sama,”
she praised sincerely.
Having experienced fighting her many times before, she understood what a great feat it was to remain unharmed against Auraniess.
It would be a mistake to think of her as just a simple, boisterous battle-maniac.
Her overwhelming offensive power, range, and “Six Sense” honed through immense combat experience were terrifying.
“I think this is the first time my attacks have been dodged this much,”
Marius, too, couldn’t hide his surprise at Sophia.
He couldn’t recall a time when his attacks were so ineffective.
There was a possibility that Auraniess simply hadn’t defended or dodged, but that was a different matter.
Meanwhile, the reactions of those watching were mixed.
“So it’s come to this.”
Auraniess smiled with satisfaction.
Even if she couldn’t fight herself, she was somewhat content witnessing a high-level battle.
“Marius, you are truly strong,”
Iris said, impressed by Marius’s power.
She already knew Sophia’s abilities, so she wasn’t particularly surprised this time.
For Zofi, Al, El, and Barra, it was all too far beyond their comprehension.
“Alright, shall we switch soon?”
Auraniess suggested.
This was just a sparring match, after all, and there was no need to determine a winner.
“Then, how about the next one is the final blow?”
“Let’s do that.”
Marius and Sophia attacked simultaneously.
“【Radius】”
Marius used a first-class light-based spell.
He wanted to see how Sophia would dodge this.
“Tundra.”
Sophia unleashed her ultimate attack.
She surmised that Marius, who could survive fights against Auraniess, should be able to withstand this attack.
Sophia easily dodged the Radius using Shadow Form.
She could have dodged it by other means as well, but she didn’t feel the need to show them.
Considering Auraniess’s capricious nature, the possibility that Marius might become an enemy in the future couldn’t be ruled out.
She decided to reveal only that she could dodge this level of attack with Shadow Form.
Meanwhile, Marius vaporized the “Tundra” Sophia unleashed with “Exharatio.”
In the end, neither of them landed a hit.
“A draw.”
“A draw indeed.”
Both were nonchalant.
Marius observed Auraniess and the others, relieved that it seemed they hadn’t noticed his transformation into a Saint.
“It’s too amazing to be of any help,”
Barra sighed, and the Succubi echoed her sentiment.
“Indeed. It’s hard to believe master’s attacks weren’t landing at all.”
“Master’s evasion is incredible, first and foremost. They were all dodged by a hair’s breadth.”
“Don’t forget their endurance, being able to fight like that and remain unfazed.”
Each of them analyzed the situation in their own way.
At that point, Marius and Sophia returned.
“Sophia, you’re a Vampire, but you’re a Vampire Lord… or perhaps an Original Vampire, aren’t you?”
Marius asked. Sophia remained silent.
However, Auraniess casually let it slip.
“Yep. Sophia is an Original Vampire. She’s the only one I couldn’t kill.”
“… Is it your fault that the Original Vampires are extinct?”
“First of all, please don’t tell me things without my permission.”
Despite Marius and Sophia’s exasperated words, Auraniess merely laughed heartily.
Among monsters, some species grow stronger with each generation, while others degenerate. Vampires, however, fall into the latter category.
Original Vampires could wield a wide variety of skills and magical eyes, and their vitality was immeasurable, but Vampire Lords were considerably weaker.
“Then, next is me versus Zofi and the others. I’ll go easy on you, so come at me all at once.”
“Can Auraniess actually go easy?”
Marius asked the most crucial question.
The expressions of Zofi and the others showed they were thinking along the same lines.
“How rude, I absolutely can! I just haven’t done it before.”
Auraniess pouted, but Marius found it hard to believe.
Only when Iris and Sophia vouched for her did he finally start to believe.
“What the—? Why do you trust Iris and Sophia more than me?”
Marius pretended not to hear Auraniess’s protest and turned back to his wife and Familiar.
“If it gets dangerous, I’ll step in, but for now, please give it your best.”
“… If you keep this up, I’m going to get angry, you hear?”
His voice deepened, and his demeanor grew menacing, a clear sign of danger.
Marius hastily tried to placate him.
“No, no, I was just trying to help them relax. I trust you completely. Otherwise, I wouldn’t let you fight them.”
“… Hmph? Well, I suppose I can forgive you for being scary, since you’re human and Succubi.”
Auraniess was easily convinced. Everyone else wondered if that was okay, but no one commented.
Zofi, secretly empowered to the level of a High-Class Demon, Al and El to the level of a Demon, and Barra, the strongest class of humanity.
Even surrounded by them, Auraniess felt no more threatened than if she were facing four ants.
“First, I’ll observe your fighting style. Try to land a single blow on my face.”
Zofi, Al, and El immediately charged.
The moment the three approached Auraniess, a large fireball appeared before her eyes.
It was Barra’s attack magic.
Auraniess dispersed it with one hand, but immediately Zofi attacked from above, Al from the right, and El from the left.
She blocked Zofi’s heel drop with her right palm, Al’s knee strike with her elbow, and El’s punch with her left hand.
Auraniess wasn’t watching the movements of the three.
She had blocked them purely on instinct.
“Let me correct that. Either land one hit on my body, or make me take one step from this spot.”
As she restated her terms, Barra fired off a “Lava Shot.”
Five molten rock projectiles flew towards Auraniess, but she countered them by spitting Magic Bullets from her mouth.
“With your current strength, even that is nearly impossible.”
Auraniess stated to the stunned four.
The Succubi moved to Barra’s side and started a strategy discussion.
“What do we do? That monster stops attacks with just her instincts.”
Zofi said, and Barra whispered back.
“It’s either hitting her or making her move, so I think a barrage of attacks is our best bet.”
“But Auraniess can also do a barrage of Magic Bullets, right?”
Al tilted his head, and El spoke up.
“Auraniess has a constraint: she can’t use attacks that would kill or severely injure us. If we exploit that, we can do anything. But that would be meaningless.”
The goal wasn’t to land a single blow on Auraniess.
It was to gain the strength to be able to land one.
El pointed this out, but Barra disagreed.
“I understand, but isn’t it important to progress to the next stage first? It’s not like the training ends once we land a hit.”
“You have a point.”
Zofi agreed with Barra.
“If she’s going easy on us, we might be able to land a hit. Isn’t it important to show that, otherwise, there’s no motivation to train?”
“However,”
El remained skeptical, but then, as if realizing something, she let out a short cry.
As her allies focused their gazes on her,
“Perhaps I was overthinking things. It’s possible that Auraniess isn’t thinking that far ahead.”
“That’s Auraniess for you.”
Zofi nodded, and Barra and Al agreed.
“It is Auraniess, after all.”
“Yes. If that’s the case, then there’s a way…”
Barra seemed to have an idea.
“Is the strategy meeting over?”
Auraniess called out in her carefree voice. The four, intending to surprise her, became determined and spread out.
“Wrath of the Earth, manifest upon the land! 【Volcano】”
Barra took the lead, unleashing a second-class magic spell that synthesized fire and earth elements.
“Since when can you use second-class magic?”
It was understandable that Marius was surprised.
Barra had been training in secret, away from prying eyes.
However, to Auraniess, it posed no threat.
She merely thought, “So she can use Volcano.” To her, Barra’s magic had the power to be crushed with one hand.
The condition was to land a hit on her body, so she countered the magic with Magic Bullets.
Just as the attack was perfectly nullified, Zofi, Al, and El simultaneously unleashed “Laser” spells.
Zofi fired about eighty, while Al and El fired about fifty each.
Just before it hit Auraniess’s body, “Laser” beams shot out from her entire body, perfectly and beautifully canceling them out.
This was proof that she had perfectly gauged the power of Zofi’s group’s attacks and the amount of force needed to counter them.
“If you think you can actually hit me, you’re underestimating me too much,”
Auraniess said with a laugh. At that moment, Zofi was directly behind her.
She hadn’t moved on her own; Barra had teleported her with magic.
“You’re the one who is,”
Zofi said, delivering a kick to the back of Auraniess’s head.
The moment she was sure it would land, the kick was stopped by Auraniess’s right hand.
“Too bad.”
The moment Auraniess said that, she crouched down on the spot.
Al and El crashed into the place where her head had been.
“You missed.”
She had evaded even Al and El’s teleportation. Just as Marius was about to interject, saying, “No way, she’s dodging too much,” Barra’s next spell activated.
Plants began to grow at Auraniess’s feet, attempting to coil around her.
Auraniess, who had crouched down, reacted a moment too late.
She used magic to forcibly extinguish the plants, but a single leaf grazed her ankle.
“Aaaagh?”
Auraniess screamed and admitted defeat.
“To make me crouch down… that was your objective.”
Auraniess said resentfully, looking at Barra. The heroine was on her knees, panting.
It was no wonder, considering she had been continuously casting spells at a speed that forced Auraniess to react belatedly.
The fact that Barra hadn’t reached complete exhaustion was proof of her growth.
“You landed a blow on Auraniess-sama…”
“Even if you went easy on them…”
Sophia and Iris said with expressions of disbelief.
The fact that they struggled to praise Barra and the others indicated their genuine surprise.
Marius judged this to be the case and could empathize with them.
(It was quite tough for me too.)
The difference between being in a prepared stance and simply being taught the ropes was significant, but even so, the efforts of his wife and Familiar were shocking to Marius.
While he felt proud, he also felt a sense of urgency, realizing he couldn’t afford to be complacent.
